VIDEO: If You Look Up "Liar" in the Dictionary. . .

DOBBS: [T]oday's scurrilous personal attack from "The New York Times" columnist David Leonhardt, carrying the water of the Southern Poverty Law Center, also has the facts wrong.

He wrote that I said, quote, that "One third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants." That isn't what I said. I didn't say anything close to it.1

Lou Dobbs Tonight, February 5, 2007:

DOBBS: And we should point out the number of illegal aliens in our jails, estimated anywhere from 20 to 30 percent, our prisons, both state and federal.2

Lou Dobbs Tonight, October 5, 2006:

DOBBS: A majority, but just about a third -- if we look at it proportionately, I think you would probably like to do that -- just about a third of the prison population in this country is estimated to be illegal aliens.3

CNN Live Today, March 28, 2006:

DOBBS: And it's
costing us, no one knows precisely how much to incarcerate what is
about a third of our prison population who are illegal aliens.4

According to the Department of Justice, non-citizens (which include both legal and illegal immigrants) make up 5.9 percent of the U.S. prison population.5

Immigrants comprise 12.5 percent of the U.S population.6

Numerous studies have found immigrants commit fewer crimes and are incarcerated at a lower rate than native-born citizens.7